The public accounts committee has this week raised fresh concerns about the funding crisis that has hit the UK care sector, stating that “carers and the people they care for may not get the services they need because of continuing reductions to local authority budgets.”

This concern comes from the latest report on the Care Act reforms in which a ‘New Burdens Doctrine’ - created to assess and fund extra costs for local authorities – does not cover funding for significant new costs. The committee suggests that Government has not been sufficiently open and transparent in classifying ‘new burdens’ (such as the impact of the new living wage), causing uncertainty for councils.

Commenting on the report, Professor Martin Green, Chief Executive of Care England has said “the objectives of the Care Act are being seriously undermined by the fact that the Government has not delivered enough money to be able to provide a stable and diverse care market.”

In addition, the Care Act was supposed to include a care cap, which would have meant no person in the UK would have had to spend more than £72000 on care in their lifetime. This was estimated to have been of immediate benefit to 35,000 people – and was due to come into effect in April 2016 – however the Government have now pushed this back to 2020.

According to the BBC, council chiefs, NHS managers and care bosses have also cast doubt over last week’s spending review, warning the Chancellor that his plans will still leave a significant funding gap that puts vulnerable people at risk. In particular, they suggest that care services, including those who provide help in people’s homes for tasks such as washing and dressing, are largely overseen by councils.

Currently, only the poorest people get financial help from local councils for care services, those with assets of over £23,250 have to pay the full cost of their care, and the numbers of people getting help have fallen as councils have struggled to cope with cuts to their budgets. An estimated 1.5 million older people with care needs rely on family and friends for help and one in 10 older people faces bills in excess of £100,000 over their lifetime for care.

So this is why care providers are still not happy, despite the chancellor’s mirage of new money. The sector continues to face very uncertain times whilst the power to pay for care services is diverted from central to local Government.